Abstract

This chapter opens a new perspective on the emergence of the Chilean welfare state by analysing the professional development of social workers in 1925–1950. The chapter explores the lived experiences—thoughts, emotions, problems and hierarchies—social workers faced as the first-hand implementers of the new social policy. The focus on experiences shows state-building as a dynamic, gendered and negotiated action carried out by the interaction of individuals. As the “female face of the state”, the social workers brought the state closer to families. The chapter indicates how the social workers’ commitment that was entailed in their professionalization carried a new experience of society and how their fieldwork aimed to build trust and membership in society, until the Pinochet dictatorship (1973) ended the development.